Translator: Legge
“Of course, I’m not asking you all to only specialize in one type of spell your entire lives. For example, I’ve trained in the fire element Lesser Fireball so that I can use it for self-defense and also deal effective damage to others.” Melgor explained, “Although control spells are my main focus, normal sorcerers are usually just like me in that they practice one primary and one secondary type of spell. One is used for support and the other is for dealing damage.”
“Then why didn’t you focus on the fire spells instead? Isn’t it worth more to train hard in the more lethal spells?” Ren Xiaosu asked curiously.
Melgor said with a bitter smile, “Because many of the advanced fire spells are extremely unstable, I need to have the meditative visualizations to complement the training. As I’m only a fringe sorcerer, no one’s willing to teach me the meditative visualizations for advanced fire spells.”
Ren Xiaosu immediately understood. He had read about it in the Introduction to Sorcery. The combination of reciting incantations and meditative visualizations was to stabilize the alchemical elements.
In other words, the magus order actually controlled a lot of meditative visualization diagrams used for casting high-level spells to hinder the advancement of fringe sorcerers, and this was how the internal hierarchy of the order was divided.
“So only those families with ancient nobility within the order can continue to do well, right?” Ren Xiaosu asked.
“That’s right.” Melgor nodded. “Normal sorcerers can only serve as a foil to the elite. However, there’s also other ways to obtain high-level meditative visualization diagrams, such as marrying into an influential family.”
Ren Xiaosu asked, “You mean you’ve considered that route before?”
Melgor shook his head. “I’m not even qualified to marry into such families.”
“Then have you ever thought about how powerful you can be if you train your Lesser Fireball spell for the rest of your life?” Ren Xiaosu asked, “It’s really exciting just thinking about it!”
Melgor did not know whether to laugh or cry as he explained, “Even if you spend an entire lifetime training the Lesser Fireball spell, it’ll only be equivalent to someone else training their Meteor Shower spell a 1,000 times. I did say that some people only practiced one spell their entire lives, but they do so only for the highest level spells. Who would bother training their Lesser Fireball spell?”
“So that’s how it works.” Ren Xiaosu nodded. “Then how strong is the most powerful sorcerer?”
“Apparently, the Meteor Shower spell can destroy an entire township. However, that was practiced by an elder who led the magus order in surviving the Cataclysm nearly 200 years ago. His life was briefly chronicled in a book.” Melgor said, “However, it seems that he was not born a noble, so the magus order deliberately reduced his influence later on.”
“Then how many times did he practice the Meteor Shower spell?” Ren Xiaosu asked.
“It was recorded in that book that he practiced it 90,000 times,” Melgor said.
Ren Xiaosu was stunned. “Then how many townships did he destroy…”
“We don’t practice our spells in the real world.” Melgor did not know whether to laugh or cry. “We train in our inner world!”
“Oh, I was gonna say,” Ren Xiaosu muttered. How devastating would it be if he had trained in the real world instead?
But even so, the other party’s act of destroying a township was still a little lacking in comparison to his status as a stronghold destroyer.
Wait a minute! Ren Xiaosu recalled the Meteor Shower spell and wondered why it sounded so familiar.
He suddenly flipped through the Introduction to Sorcery in his hand and closed the book again.
Melgor wondered, “What’s the matter?”
“It’s nothing.” Ren Xiaosu shook his head nonchalantly.
However, Ren Xiaosu’s heart was pounding. No wonder he thought the Meteor Shower spell sounded so familiar. It was because the author of the Introduction to Sorcery kept mentioning it when quoting examples in his book: “Take, for example, the Meteor Shower spell I specialize in…”
So it turned out the author of the Introduction to Sorcery was the great genius sorcerer Melgor was referring to?
And the Rider Ren He had easily defeated the greatest sorcerer in the history of the nation of sorcerers on his casual travels?
Of course, when Ren He defeated him, that sorcerer might still have been very young. But after he was defeated, he decided to work hard to become the most powerful archmage of his time?
The butterfly effect awed Ren Xiaosu a little just thinking about it.
If each Proficiency Stone represented him practicing a spell once, then Ren Xiaosu’s 90,000 gratitude tokens meant he could exchange them for a sorcerer’s lifetime of pursuit in just a short hour. That way, wouldn’t he be comparable to that great sorcerer?
This time, even Ren Xiaosu was shocked, because he did not expect the gratitude tokens he had accumulated in his Prosperous Northwest 2.0 plan would turn out to be so useful!
According to what Melgor said, a sorcerer would only be considered as having mastered a spell after ten years of training and casting it 10,000 times. Only then would they become a notable archmage in the magus order.
In that case, Ren Xiaosu could most likely defeat 90% of the magus order’s members in one night, right?
But when Ren Xiaosu thought about it again, he realized he already had enough tricks up his sleeve. With enough understanding of the magus order, would he need to learn so many archmage-level spells?
Perhaps he could also be like that most powerful sorcerer Melgor had mentioned, only learning one spell in his entire life to use as his ace?
In the past, he had actually been a little envious of Li Shentan and Zhou Yingxue. They had such powerful attacks against masses of enemies while he did not.
Now, he could finally make up for it in the nation of sorcerers, right? Of course, there was no need to hurry for now. He would have to choose a spell on the level of Meteor Shower before spamming the Proficiency Stones on it.
After he returned to the Northwest, he could finally hold his head high in front of his maidservant as her master.
Moreover, if he were to use all 90,000 Proficiency Stones on a single spell, couldn’t he do whatever he wanted in the nation of sorcerers?
However, he was still unsure about that for now.
Ren Xiaosu sat at the campfire and suddenly asked Melgor, “Is there really no one in the magus order now who can match that genius sorcerer?”
“That’s right,” said Melgor.
“Oh.” Ren Xiaosu was relieved. There was no need to fight anymore. He had already won!
Regardless of what the actual situation was, being able to mentally one-up them was half the battle won!
When everyone started feeling sleepy, Ren Xiaosu took the opportunity to return to his tent where he waited patiently.
Gradually, Melgor and the two sheeple’s snores could be heard. Only then did Ren Xiaosu take out his Eye of True Sight from the palace.
“Maybe I should attempt Lesser Fireball first?” Ren Xiaosu’s eyes lit up. This was a spell he had obtained without using any Perfect Skill Duplication Scrolls. How refreshing!
Ren Xiaosu had a great deal of combat experience, so he deeply understood how important it was to have another skill to rely on.
However, Melgor also said he had practiced the spell a 1,000 times before he could finally cast it. Ren Xiaosu thought he could probably practice it several dozen times in one night since it wasn’t likely he would exhaust his willpower anyway.
Based on this, he could probably cast Lesser Fireball in just a few days, right?
But what was the incantation for the spell? Ren Xiaosu did not have Wang Yun’s memory, and since Melgor had said it in a foreign language to him, he could not remember how to pronounce “fire.”
Ren Xiaosu stayed silent for a long while. Then he picked up the Eye of True Sight and tried saying, “Haiya?”
In an instant, Ren Xiaosu felt a portion of his willpower quickly splitting off and concentrating in his Eye of True Sight.
Right after, a loud rumble came from the direction of the sheeple’s tent next door.
Li Chengguo and Liu Ting shouted, “Fuck!”
